Good save there, Pe. Though it is debatable whose hide you were trying to save. But I won't press the issue.

I do agree that this is not a popularity contest. As long as folks here benefit from the discussion and hopefully gains a higher level of appreciation for the issue at hand - and most importantly - becomes better at telling BS apart from sound advice, it is all for good and matters not who is perceived to "win".

As I stated in the very first post in this thread, I don't particularly care to get as fussy about this issue with my own airplane models. One thing a good engineers learns with experience is decidng what constitutes "good enough". That, in essense, separates us engineers from the pure scientists. We may spend 2months performing a FLUENT CFD two-phase flow erosion study on our oil field pressure chokes (and we have done just that), because it could mean the difference between using plain stainless steel, or stellite coating, or having to go with carbide inserts. The huge difference in the overall performance and associated expense justifies the engineering excercise.

OTOH, spending 1/2hour dremeling a hole that "looks right" to me on my 35% Giles 202 cowl satisfies my requirements plenty.